Friendship is Magic: The Line
by No Country For Old Men78
Summary: Captain Walker, unable to cope with the atrocities he committed in Dubai, decides to end it all with Konrad's M9, and is transported to a magical world of talking ponies. Will the Elements of Harmony help him conquer his demons through the power of friendship, or will its diabetes-inducing ambiance drive him closer to the brink of insanity? Rated T unless otherwise noted.
1. A Farewell to Arms

_(AN: Ok, first of all ye be warned there be crackfic ahead. Second this was originally in my other fic _Zulu Squad No Tsukaima_, but it was confusing a lot of first time readers so I removed them and gave it it's own fic. This is a sort of simultaneous sequel to it, but it stands on it's own. _Spec Ops: the Line_ belongs to Yager and MLP:FIM belongs to Hasbro. Hate if ye must, but don't sue.)_

_**"To kill for yourself is murder. To kill for your government is heroic. To kill for entertainment is harmless."**_

The hallucination of Colonel John Konrad smirked at Captain Walker's excuses.

"It takes a strong man to deny what's right in front of him. And if the truth is undeniable, you create your own. The truth, Walker, is that you're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not: A hero. I'm here because you can't accept what you've done. It broke you. You needed someone to blame, so you cast it on me. A dead man. I know the truth is hard to hear Walker, but it's time."

The scene morphed into a mirror, where Walker could see his reflection and Konrad's. Konrad was brandishing the same handgun as the one in Walker's hand.

"You're all that's left and we can't live this lie forever."

He pointed the gun at Walker.

"I'm going to count to five, then I'm pulling the trigger."

Walker shook his head.

"You're not real. This is all in my head."

"Are you sure? Maybe it's in mine? One."

Walker pointed his gun at Konrad.

"No... everything, all of this, It was your fault!"

"If that's what you believe then shoot me. Two."

Walker hung his head, his voice breaking.

"I-I didn't mean to hurt anybody..."

Konard shook his head.

"No-one ever does Walker. Three."

Konrad's words seemed tinged with regret and sympathy.

"Four. Is this really what you want Walker?"

Walker slowly put the gun under his chin. With a sigh Konrad spoke with the air of finality.

"So be it. Five."

Walker pulled the trigger, and heard a deafening explosion. In an instant he found himself surrounded by a white light. A soft feminine voice reached his ears.

**_"Captain Martin Walker, the man who so wanted to be a hero. But what you really wanted was peace, wasn't it?"_**

Walker looked around.

"Who are you? What do you want? Is this the afterlife?"

**_"Who I am is of little consequence, Captain Walker. I am here to grant you a boon that you wished for so much in life."_**

"Great, so if this is the afterlife am I going to be transported to Heaven filled with gorgeous babes?"

Even though he could not see the female speaker, he could tell that she was smiling.

**_"Yes, Captain Walker, in a manner of speaking you will be. You are going to a paradise filled with beautiful females. Most importantly, this is a place of peace, a peaceful place where you will never have to make life or death decisions or see your friends die."_**

Walker saw golden motes of light approach, and permeate his being. It was a sensation that reminded him of being immersed in a warm bath. He felt his conscious slipping.

**_"Welcome to your eternal reward, Captain Walker."_**

He lost consciousness. An eternity later, there was a disembodied voice talking. At first he couldn't make what was being said, other than the speaker was female. Then words started to morph together.

"C'mon sleepyhead! You gotta wake up!"

Walker slowly opened his eyes and was shocked to see a pair of large, moon-shaped eyes looking at him.

"There! That wasn't so hard was it? C'mon get up, you gotta help me!"

The voice sounded like a cheerleader high on helium and nitrous oxide. But that wasn't the most shocking thing. What shocked him was who the voice belonged to. It was a horse, a pink horse with a pink poufy mane. A talking horse. A talking pink horse. A talking pink horse with a poufy pink mane and a high-pitched voice, and apparently the size of an elephant and wagging her tail like an overexcited terrier. She was pulling covers off him and talking on and on about a surprise party for someone called Fluttershy. Walker pulled himself up and froze. His hand was all wrong. It was purple, for one thing, and had small, stubby digits that ended in claws. Fighting a rising panic, he ignored the prattling of the pink horse and crawled across the floor to a large mirror on the opposite wall. His reflection gasped. What stared back at him was a purple lizard with large, ice blue eyes and a green crest on the top of his head. He touched his face in disbelief, and the reflection followed. His shocked reverie was interrupted by the pink horse.

"Hey Spike, are you listening? I need you to run and get me ingredients for the cake!"

Walker spun around to face her.

"What-what did you call me?"

The horse went up and put her hoof up to what approximated his forehead.

"Are you okay, Spike? You're acting kinda funny."

"N-no, no this is a mistake, my name is Walker. Captain Martin Walker, Delta Force, Serial number 8675-309…"

He was interrupted by squealing laughter on the part of the pink horse.

"Riiiight, Spike you almost had me going. I didn't realize you were playing the name game. Okay, your name isn't Spike, it's Captain Walker, and my name isn't Pinkie Pie, it's Captain Prancer. You're funny!"

But the joke was lost on Walker. All Walker, aka Spike heard was the distant female laughter.

(_AN: yeah I feel a bit like that sadistic animator in "Duck Amok". In fairness I think Walker will adjust just fine in MLP:FIM. Maybe. Cue the evil laughter.)_


	2. MFWIC

_(AN: Because of the reaction I got to Walker's fate I decided to publish this quick drabble. I'm not particularly happy with it because I churned this out quickly this afternoon as a result of too much stress at work and not enough sleep last night. Because of the Cluster F Bombs being dropped at the beginning I'm rating this chapter Mature.)_

"Fuck you! Just shoot me! I'm standing right here! C'mon! Shoot me Goddammit! FUCKIN' SHOOT ME!"

Adams was in pain. He bled from multiple wounds that were reopened in the last battle. His body ached from sleep deprivation. But the worst was the mental feeling, like there was a rat scratching inside his skull. The mission was over; all he wanted to do was end the pain. He barely heard what was being said over the loudspeaker from the chopper. He genuinely wanted them to shoot him and end the pain. He looked over to Walker and saw him lower his weapon.

"Don't you dare!" He snarled at his CO. Walker dropped it.

"Well, fuck you, then. I didn't come this far to surrender."

"It's the only way inside that tower."

Anger boiled up inside Adams.

"For fuck's sake, give it up! The mission's over! We failed!"

"Not while I'm still breathing!"

Adams stared at Walker, and it seemed as though his eyes were opened for the first time. He saw just how far gone his CO was. He shook his head.

"Fine…then keep breathing."

He shoved Walker over the sandbags and watched him tumble to the ground.

"Run, motherfucker!"

He leveled his M249 Squad Assault Weapon at the chopper and opened fire. He screamed, but not in pain. He could feel bullets ripping through his body armor, piercing his leg, his right shoulder, and his chest, but still he felt nothing. He saw smoke billowing from the chopper's engine compartment and saw it go into a death-spin, spiraling towards him.

He opened his eyes and found himself surrounded in a white light. He looked down at himself and found that he had no wounds, that his uniform was clean and without any damage. He then heard a voice.

**_"Lieutenant Alphanso Adams, the obedient soldier. Your loyalty to your friends and your superior drove you to commit atrocities. It cost you your friend, and your sanity."_**

It was a distinctly feminine voice. Adams wasn't sure how to react to that.

"Yeah, whatever. Are you God? My guardian angel? Or the Devil welcoming me to where I deserve to go?"

**_"Who I am is of little consequence. I am here to grant your heart's desire. What is it that you wish for, Adams?"_**

He didn't answer, and he felt a calming presence in his mind, one that soothed the raging anger and washed away the maddening guilt that wracked his brain. A memory surfaced, of happier times in his younger days when he spent the summer helping at his uncle's restaurant in New Orleans, making beignets. The voice spoke again, softer this time.

**_"Ah. I see now. Very well, Adams, I will grant you what you wish. Welcome to your eternal reward."_**

He felt a jolt of pain, like electricity burning out his nervous system.

An eternity later, his senses gradually came around. The first was the sound of two voices speaking, a male and a female. The male reminded him of his old commander, before he joined Delta, the other reminded him of Lugo's mother, from the one time they met up on leave at Fort Hood. The second thing that hit him was a pleasant smell of freshly baked pastries, which reminded him of his uncle's restaurant.

"Dear I think he's coming around."

"I can see that, cupcake, give him some air."

Adams opened his eyes, and saw a ceiling. It wasn't Dubai, or even a military hospital. Then two heads appeared in his vision and caused him to sit up with a jolt. Two small horses, one was a yellow horse with an overbite and an orange mane and was wearing a bow tie and a baker's hat. The other was light blue with a pink mane and a frilly apron. Adams could barely process this when the yellow one spoke.

"Take it easy there, sonny. Seems like you've had a busy day."

The horse spoke! The insanity of it topped everything he had seen and done in the last 48 hours since they arrived in Dubai. His CO's slow descent into madness, Lugo's lynching, all this was nothing to two talking miniature horses. He abruptly sat up with and start and tried to stand, whacking his head on the low ceiling. He stifled a curse and sat back down.

The blue horse approached with a tray in it's mouth and set it next to Adams on the bed.

"Now, now dearie, you listen to my Carrot Cake and take it easy. Here, have some hot chocolate. It's my own recipe and will cure anything from a bad day to a broken heart."

Adams looked and the small mug, and took a cautious sip. He hadn't had a drink of water since since that bastard Riggs crashed the water trucks. In an irony fit for a fractured aesop his Camelback dispenser got ripped when his truck crashed into a roadblock. The liquid was warm but not too hot and tasted delicious. As the healing brew coursed down to his stomach he took in his surroundings, looking down at himself in the process. His wounds were cleaned and bandaged up, he seemed whole. He was in a small room with a bed, which was laying on, a small chest of drawers and a mirror. He noticed his SAW and M1014 combat shotgun were propped up against a wall, along with the battered remains of his body armor and load-bearing vest. He looked back to the two horses.

"Where am I?"

The yellow horse chuckled.

"Well, you're in Ponyville. Sugarcube Corner if you want to be specific. Applejack found you in the Everfree Forest and brought you here."

The blue horse cleared her throat. The yellow horse seemed embarrassed.

"Goodness gracious where are my manners? We haven't even introduced ourselves. My name is Carrot Cake, and this is my wife, Cup Cake."

"Lieutenant Alphanso Adams, United States Delta Force."

Adams belted out his name and rank mechanically, still trying to process the fact that there were talking horses in front of him. The names sounded vaguely familiar. He remembered when he was young that his younger sister had these small technicolored toy ponies that had weird names and smelled funny. He also remembered getting into trouble with his parents for snipping the tails off of one of her toys.

_"Mooooom! Alfie ruined one of my toys! He cut Applejack's tail off!"_

He jolted back to reality, or whatever this was.

"You're ponies? I remember my sister playing with talking ponies."

Carrot Cake laughed again.

"It wouldn't surprise me, sonny. We've seen your kind show up in Equestria, you're not the first, not even the first soldier to show up. Although-" he said as he eyed Adams' gear, "You're the first to show up who isn't in super power armor or weirdly powerful weapons."

He was interrupted by a rumbling noise, coming from Adams' stomach. The hot chocolate he had just ingested reminded his system that he hadn't eaten anything since the raid on the Radioman's tower. Cup Cake heard it and giggled.

"Sounds like someone's hungry. Why don't you come downstairs and have something to eat?"

Adams stood up and followed the two horses (no, ponies, he corrected himself) out of the room and down a flight of stairs. He had to stoop so as not to hit his head against the ceiling. The bottom of the stairs opened to a large open area that looked like an old-fashioned soda jerk counter, except it was fashioned out of gingerbread and sweets. Adams' thought that someone could get diabetes if you stared at the place too long. His musings were interrupted by the female pony speaking up.

"Pinkie! Pinkie Pie! Fetch me some fresh pastries, we have a guest, and by the sounds of his stomach he's brought the appetite of a griffon."

Adams was still staring at an intricately designed beam made of gingerbread and was only vaguely aware of a high-squeaky voice talking at the speed of sound. It was a second voice that pulled him out of his reverie.

"Adams?"

He spun around at the sound of his name being said. There was another horse (pony, he corrected himself again), this one was pink with a poufy mane and the source of the squeaky voice. The one who called him by name was a small purple lizard with a green crest. Adams cocked his head to one side. That voice sounded familiar.

"Adams?" The lizard repeated. "What are you doing here?"

Before he could respond the pink pony chirped up.

"Oh, you're Adams? I'm Pinkie Pie and this is my friend Spike." The pony paused for a minute. "Oops, I forgot we were still playing our name game. I'm Captain Prancer and this is Captain Walker."

Adams stared at the lizard.

"Martin? Captain Walker?"

The lizard couldn't speak but nodded miserably. The pink pony kept prancing about and talking very fast, oblivious to the goings on. Adams couldn't help himself. For the first time in a long time he laughed. A genuine, throw-your-head-back and wrack-your-gut laugh.

"Damn Walker, what the hell did you tell the lady in the white light?"

_(AN: And the sadistic animator continues to torment poor Walker. Honestly I'm not happy with this because I know absolutely nothing about _My Little Pony: FIM_, and have zero interest in finding out (no offense, it's just not my cup of java), so I'm not sure if I got the characters right. I figured I'd give Adams a break since he pretty much just went along with Walker as 'following orders.' This was originally just a one-shot for for my _Zulu Squad No Tsukaima_ fic, but due to interest I've turned this into a full-blown story. I don't know when I'll be expanding it, since I'm trying to wrap up the other story before I get into this one. So please be patient, and feel free to comment/follow/fav/jeer._


	3. Situational Awareness

_(AN: Well, with ZSNT winding down I figured I'd take another stab at this. I really, really really fought hard against watching the source material for this crossover, but finally broke down and cued this series up on Netflix. Good news is, I emerged with my sanity intact, and so far I don't have any inclination to sing the theme song or imagine any of the Elements of Harmony in human form, or any other symptoms of 'bronyitis'. I've stubbed out a couple of chapters just to set the stage for this story. Like ZSNT the chapters will be named after the SO:TL achievements, and like ZSNT ol' Walker is going to undergo his 'hero's journey' as his path to redemption. For now there's no plans to reunite Lugo with his squad mates, aside from perhaps a dream or two. There will be a character from SO:TL that will make an appearance in this story, as well as a character from ZSNT. Enjoy!)_

"Um, does anyone else but me think that Spike is a bit off?"

Twilight Sparkle looked up from her books and glanced over to her dragon assistant.

"Just a minute, Rarity."

She glanced over to the orange pony with the straw hat.

"You mean you found this hew-mon in the Everfree Forest."

Applejack bobbed her head.

"Eyup, and he was in heaps of trouble when I found `im."

The country pony shuddered.

"Feller was badly messed up, looked like he was put through an apple grinder. Sure wouldn't want to go where he came from."

Twilight took another look at the stranger, who was in the process of talking to Spike. For some reason the two of them had hit it off. As she scrutinized her little dragon secretary Twilight noticed that something was a bit off. For one thing, his voice seemed different. She looked over to Rarity.

"Spike does seem a bit off, maybe this is him transitioning into an adolescent dragon?"

The diva unicorn snorted a decidedly unponylike snort.

"Don't be ridiculous, darling. Something like that wouldn't happen overnight. My point is that Spike's not been acting himself since that hew-mon showed up."

She gestured at the dragon with her hoof.

"I mean, he hasn't even noticed me even though I made my grand entrance five minutes ago!"

Twilight looked at Spike again. It was true, the secret crush that her assistant had for Rarity was no secret at all, and usually by this point he would have embarrassed himself by attempting small talk with the unicorn. But he hadn't.

"It's not a coincidence that he's been calling himself 'Walker' instead of Spike."

Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing about and humming to herself, paused as she overheard Rarity's rant.

"Oh, you mean Spike's new game? Oh, he was doing that this morning, long before Lt. Adams showed up!"

Both Twilight Sparkle and Rarity stopped and stared at the pink pony.

"What do you mean?" They both said.

The sudden scrutiny caused Pinkie Pie to pause.

"Umm, well this morning when I woke him up at your place he wanted to play the name game. He said his name was Captain Walker! So I told him I would be Captain Prancer!"

Oblivious to the knowing looks the unicorns were sharing Pinkie pranced off. Twilight Sparkle glanced over to where Spike was. She could only catch snippets of the dialog, but it looked like Spike was trying to wield one of the hew-mon's muskets. The one called Adams spoke up.

"Listen Walker, this is a bad idea..."

Spike/Walker glared up at Adams, the effect would have been better if he wasn't three feet tall and purple. The only vestige of his former life was his ice-blue eyes.

"We've already discussed this, Adams! I am not going to be stuck in this crap-saccharine world if I can't fire a weapon, now hand me your weapon!"

Adams sighed, and unslung his M1014 combat shotgun from the sling on his back, handing it to the miniature dragon.

"I'm tellin' you, this is a mistake."

The baby dragon clumsily held the shotgun up, and braced it against his shoulder, then pulled the trigger. The close confines of the Golden Oak Library was shattered by the sound of an explosion as the recoil from the shotgun sent the little dragon flying back and into a bookcase, causing a cascade of grimoires to fall on his head. As Walker tried to blink the stars out of his vision, he noticed a tiny pony glaring at him and put a hoof to her lips, shushing him.

Adams grinned at his CO's predicament.

"I told you so, man."

Spike/Walker rubbed his scaly head.

"Oww, that bucking hurt."

He paused for a moment.

"Did I just say 'bucking', instead of bucking?"

Adams stood in stunned silence, then burst out laughing, causing the same small pony to shush him as well.

"Knock it off, Adams, this isn't bucking funny!"

"Oh, it is Walker, it is! You're stuck as a baby dragon in this world, and now you can't even cuss right! It's too rich!"

The little dragon opened his mouth to speak, then peered around Adams and paused.

"What's wrong, Walker?"

"Ah, Adams, I think those miniature horses can hear us..."

"Ponies..."

"What?"

"They're called 'ponies', Walker, not horses."

"Whatever, they're looking this way!"

One of them, the light purple unicorn approached the duo. She still stared at Walker.

"Spike, what's wrong?"

"Wrong? What do you mean?"

Twilight took a step closer.

"Well for one thing, your voice sounds off."

Walker realized his voice still sounded like his old self and he cleared his throat, increasing the pitch so as to sound younger.

"Well, ah, er I had-or rather I still have a nasty cold, and it's affected my voice..."

The white unicorn with the overtly permed mane approached.

"And your eyes are a different color, Spike!"

Walker/Spike glanced over to Adams, and then guiltily coughed.

"Well, this cold, also turned my eyes a different color...it's called Blue Fever, because, y'know, blue is cold, and that's...that's why my eyes are blue!"

Neither of the unicorns seemed convinced, the white one pointed her hoof to Adams.

"How do you know this hew-mon?"

Adams glared at the pony.

"Hey, the name's Adams, Miss Prissy pants!"

She snorted again.

"It's Rarity! And stop trying to change the subject!"

She looked over to Spike.

Fine, how do you know this Adams?"

Spike rubbed the back his his head nervously.

"...well, I mean I like being friendly, and Pinkie over there say that Friendship is important."

Twilight cocked her head to one side.

"But the way you converse with this Adams seems to indicate you know him from somewhere else."

Spike gulped nervously.

"I-I don't know what the Hay you're talking about-"

His voice and heard Adams chuckle. Twilight took another step forward.

"Spike?"

The littel dragon sighed.

"Hold that thought, Sparkles."

Spike/Walker pushed past the unicorn and walked over to a large wooden desk, and started beating his head against it.

"Stop! Stop that, Spike! You'll hurt yourself!"

The little dragon stopped bonking his head against the desk.

"Butt out! I'm having a very bad day, and this automatically mincing my cuss words is the last straw-"

He paused for a moment and grasped his stomach. Adams reached out to his CO-turned-baby dragon.

"Something wrong, Walk-er- I mean Spike?"

The dragon glared at Adams.

"No, it's not alright, I feel like I have the worst case of indigestion ever!"

He wince and doubled over. A bubbling noise came from his stomach and he straightened out, then let out a long belch of flame. As the green flames reached Adams he grimaced and waved a hand over his face.

"Oh, man! That's gross, dude! You need to warn a guy before you do that!"

Spike/Walker almost spoke, but saw the green flames he belched out coalesce into scroll. Both dragon and human stared dumbfound at the scroll as it floated towards Twilight Sparkle.

"What the fuck was that?" Adams said when he could recover his voice.

The light purple unicorn said nothing, but her horn glowed and the scroll unfurled. She read it and then looked directly at the little dragon.

"Spike, pack up, we have to go to Canterlot."

"Canterlot?"

"Yes, Princess Celestia requested my presence."

She looked over to Adams.

"Actually, her Highness's exact words were 'bring Spike and the hew-mon visitor."

Spike/Walker and Adams exchanged glances. This wasn't good, thought Walker. His cover story was unraveling fast in front of the new contacts, and if their ruler was half as sharp as this Twilight Sparkle, then he and Adams were toast.

_(AN: And the sadistic Godlike Author still loves to torment Captain Walker. In fairness he has alot to atone for, so his status as the resident Chew Toy of the Author will not be revoked anytime soon. This was a short chapter, but the next couple should be coming along alot quicker than this one. The next two will be introducing the canon migrants to this story, and then we get on with the main plot.)_


End file.
